Layer of Fate: Angelic Swords
by CG-3m1y4
Summary: As time passes, changes have been made. What was once a simple game, become a fierce battle. A girl who wants to find out about herself. Her fateful meeting with a certain doll might drag her into a world far beyond her imagination...


Both **Fate/stay night** and **Angelic Layer** belong to **TYPE-MOON** and **CLAMP** respectively. None of the characters featured in this fiction are mine, this is pure fanwork.

* * *

**[...]**

"With this, it's finally over. I am proud of you, Master."

I hate it.

I hate it so much.

Why must you leave me?

Why do I have to be deleted?

Why couldn't we belong together?

You are my most important person.

The red attire, the white hair, the silver eyes . . .

Your sarcastic attitude, your usual snarky grin . . .

and your wide back . . .

I will miss you more than anyone else.

My faithful servant who has stood and fought for me time and time.

He is not just my servant anymore;

he is the man I love now.

But maybe . . . just maybe . . .

I suppose it's for the best, even if I do actually exist after this.

A servant and a master could never be together.

To be honest I would rather be deleted than to wake up without you.

Tears form in my eyes as I let out a sob when strong arms tightly embrace me.

Then we kissed, our lips touched for what it seemed like eternity, before we pulled apart from each other.

It's bitter, yet sweet. With the best albeit shaky smile formed on my face, I let out the last parting words.

"I love you, Archer."

His last words were so muffled that I can't understand, but I am able to read his lips.

It makes my heart stop.

_'I love you too, Master.'_

I feel tears streaming from my eyes almost endlessly. At the same moment, the "tides" and "undercurrents" around the pair begin to flow at an incredible rate.

Then everything goes blank, and all I can see is white.

**[...]**

. . .

" . . . Hikaru wins! With this, Deus Misaki and Angel Hikaru had won the National Championship three times in a row!" The screen switches to a two small doll which moves almost humanlike that fighting a fierce battle before, one of them now leaned down on the ground.

"So, is this your first time seeing Angelic Layer battle before?" A raven-haired man walks up to my direction and stands up next to me.

"U–um, yes it is. I hear about Angelic Layer all the time but I've never seen one in real life before."

"I see." He nods sagely.

A movement catching my eye, I turn and look back to the center of the Layer at the wide-screen television. She stands tall and noble, wearing a plain red outfit with short pink hair. It's rather unbelievable, a doll a smaller than its kind yet could win against the opponents despite the tiny size.

_Angelic Layer, it's a widely popular game involves robotic dolls fighting each other while controlled by their user's, the Deus, brainwaves._

_It was first created by Mihara Ichirou, the 'father' of Angelic Layer. First started as an innocent idle suggestion from a young paralyzed woman, Suzuhara Shuuko, who worked with Ichirou (also known as Chief Mihara, Icchan, Icchan-san) on his research to help bring back movement to her legs with brainwaves, sadden they wouldn't received funding for the research. Shuuko-san just wished her daughter, Misaki, played with the dolls they used in their research. She thought controlling it with their mind would be fun._

_Inspired by Shuuko-san, Ichirou bring the idea up to his superiors. Upon getting approval, they made the first series of Angel dolls, specially made robotic dolls that can move according their Deus' mind._

_Technically, the Angel itself was a highly sophisticated doll that was controlled by brainwaves of the owner, the Deus which were sent by a special headset that transferred the Deus' brainwaves to the Angel. That was all it was to everyone that simply watched Angelic Layer battles._

_To the Deus, however, the Angel was so much more. The Angel came as nothing more than a small metal human figure with no hair, clothes or skin, and was encased in the Angel Egg. The Deus programmed the parameters of the Angel themselves. Each Angel made individual because the Deus put their own personalities inside the Angel. From everything to the hair, clothes, height and look of the Angel, it was entirely up to the Deus. The Angel was very much like the Deus' own child._

_No, the Angel was truly a part of the Deus themselves._

_It was an instant hit. Many people, mostly girls, bought their own Angels and start playing Angelic Layer. The profits were used to fund Ichirou's research to help paralyzed people with brainwaves problem. Later on, several months ago, Mihara Ichirou or as I called him 'Icchan-san', married Hibiya Chitose, an employee of Piffle Princess Enterprises where Icchan-san used to work at as the president of company. And the Angelic Layer became more than just a game as the technology advances, the core battle still not changed much but many variations were added to keep things interesting. Arenas and Angels both become more complex and more intricate as time passes. Huge tournaments are held, competing Angels tear their tiny opponents into pieces while hundreds of people flock to watch the fights._

_Eventually, what could be considered a girls' game at first now reaching most male's interest to become Deus as well. What started as simple martial arts has quickly evolved into armed battles, the Angels now having weapons available to them. Knives have been added to the fights, the uses ranging from swords to blade-mounted gauntlets. More and more people are playing, and many more are watching, as the fights become more and more violent._

_But still, mostly first generation Angels dominated the Layer battlefield because their Deus already have much more experience than newbies. The Angelic Layer Champion two, now three times in a row, Misaki and Hikaru, also didn't use any weapons, prefer to fight bare handed and focusing on speed to beat their opponent, although sometimes they relied on two innate electric cables on Hikaru's neck to distract their foes._

And now, the man who standing next to me is 22 years-old Mihara Oujirou, current president of 'Piffle Princess' company that owned Angelic Layer, and Icchan-san's little brother.

"Do you want to join?" With his rather handsome face Oujirou-san brightly smiles at me, and I feel my cheek redden a bit.

"U–um, I guess . . ." I slightly stutter before answering. Seeing my reaction, he just laughs. Mou, such a tease!

"Then follow me. I'll show you the biggest store here that holds everything about Angelic Layer." He begins to walk, and I silently follow him ignoring whispers from people around me. Well, Oujirou-san is a great and handsome man after all, no wonder he's so popular.

***Scene Break***

As we walked through the automated glass doors of the department store, I can feel my heart racing. I am going to learn more about Angelic Layer in a firsthand experience, from the expert nonetheless. Wonder how many people could do that?

From the outside, 'Piffle Princess' is more like a department store than a company building. This Tokyo branch is no different. Well, it's very big though compared to other stores, I can agree that much.

We enter the store by the glass door and when we're inside . . . I feel my eyes widen. Big is an understatement, the place is pretty damn huge. The shelves lined with all kinds of things. We're walking slowly and see the whole surroundings that filled with various colors, looking for the toy section, several floors above where we would find the starter kits for Angelic Layer. When we finally find the place, I'm once again surprised to see it had a whole section dedicated to it. There are sections for various costumes and equipment, the starter kits, various other accessories that are required to start-up, wigs, and a whole slew of other things. Seems like it mostly clothes and doll parts though, as the armed weapons just invented recently as far as I know.

The wide selection of accessories and dolls was almost made my eyes dizzy. I don't know about him too much, but from what I can see and gather in this place alone I assume that Icchan-san is an obscurely rich guy.

"Hello, Chief Mihara-kun!" a cheerful voice can be hear from our side. Looking back, we see a clerk assistant wave her hand at us. She's pretty, with her long hair covered her neck, white uniform and a brown miniskirt. A name tag can be seen on her left chest of the uniform, written 'Azami Suzuki'. "Buying your usual stuff again?"

"It's been a while, Suzuki-san. No, I'm not buying anything for Wizard right now." He says that with smile not leaving his face. "I just want to give this girl some things before she starts playing Angelic Layer."

"Hoo?" Beneath the golden curls of her hair, two brown eyes narrow with interest. She pointed at me next, "And who's this kid?"

"She's my cousin. She's supposedly transferred to Eriol Academy this month, and because now's Sunday as we know it... I'm taking her to a date." With cool demeanor, he calmly states with a grin. _Wait, WHAT?_

"O–OUJIROU-SAN!" I shout in embarrassment. Ah, now people are looking at us with curiosity. How embarrassing.

"Oh dang I'm beaten. So the rumor is true, the Chief has a tendency on hitting younger women, like that Misaki-girl. I guess brothers do think alike."

"Eh, really?" I put my hand on cheek, shocked by that revelation.

"HEY! Don't compare me to that lolicon!"

"Ahahaha. Anyway, who's your name Girlfriend-chan?"

"She's NOT my girlfriend!" Oujirou-san vehemently denied with a loud voice, but now with a blush crept up his face. Even though he already said "taking me to a date" he's still embarrassed himself in the end.

"Yashiro, Yashiro Emi. Pleased to meet you." I slightly bow to the clerk.

"Eeh, what a nice girl, how rare. Nice to meet you too, Emi-chan." Bowing back at me, she ruffles my hair with happy attitude. Then her gaze turn to the adult beside me.

"Nee, shall I help you choose, Chief-kun? I'll give a very good recommendations for low budgets."

"No, I think I'll take my time. This is good for my marketing skills as well."

"Oh okay then, if you need something, just ask!" The clerk winks at Oujirou-san seductively, but as usual with dealing other girls, Oujirou-san just deliberately ignoring her flirt.

***Scene Break***

"Well… for starters, you need this, and this, and this…" He continued, giving me some boxes that he picks from nearby shelves. Which piled in my arms and soon overflowing, to the point when I can't possibly hold the things anymore if he add more into it.

Wait, I didn't know that making an Angel need this much thing!

"Ah, sorry about that. I guess I've been a bit overboard." He grabs several box on my hand and put them back on the shelves, and some of them added on his own bag.

"And lastly . . . You need an Angel Egg." Now he begins to search the Angel Egg section, but pauses at the moment. I look closer at the display that he sees. There's only one red box there, it had a picture of an egg with wings on the front, below that the words Angelic Layer printed in golden font.

"Excuse me, Suzuki-san. Do we have any other Angel Egg left?"

"Please wait a minute." Suzuki-san checks out from her tablet and after a moment, answers in sad smiley face. "Unfortunately, that's the only Angel Egg left. Most of the others already sold out about a day ago, and right now we don't have any reserves."

"Oh." He deeply sigh. "It seems like we only have a male one left. Is that OK with you?" The man asks me.

"Ye-yes . . . Is there something wrong?" When I look at him again, he crosses his arms and close his eyes, tapping his shoes as he did. He's really thinking about this.

"The ratio of female to male Angels is still more than five to one, they are pretty rare. Since mostly girls play this game, nearly all Angels are female. Most male ones are either low quality or very expensive, and there's not too many accessories to male as opposed to female."

"I see." I nod my head. Kind of understandable really, since the game is first aimed for girls.

"Don't worry too much about it. On the Layer, it doesn't matter who we are. All that matters is the fight."

"Right." I stare at the Angel Egg. For some reason, I feel like the doll inside is watching me intently. Um, is that even possible?

He look closely at the side of the box and analyzing it, scratching his chin. "But well . . . this one is the experimental type. Neither Angelic Fight nor Angelic Dance type have such designs." he added his earlier explanations.

"Experimental . . . type?" I tilt my head to the side, this term is unknown to me.

"If I'm not mistaken, Nii-san said that this kind of Angel Egg would later be researched to create bigger dolls like robots, a personal computer or persocom. There are several unique parts that not included on standard Angels, so it might be very confusing on a newcomer like you."

"So it's weaker than the usual?"

"Maybe. I'm not sure though, I've never really seen it before"

Hmm. I know some of them can move and acts like humans, but as I recall that only happens in Layer, although Icchan-san deemed to public that he has already moved a notch in his research. Maybe that's what Oujirou-san mean by experimental type?

"Hee . . . You sure know a lot, Oujirou-san." I give a praise.

"Well, first and foremost, I'm a Deus too. And I spend most of my time researching with Nii-san to cure people like Shuuko-san with observing the Angel battle." He said it with proud, puffing his chest.

I look at the red box again. Why? I can't shake this familiar feeling. My hand feels cold, no, my whole body feels cold even though . The odd feeling that stirs my chest and causes my heart to beat faster and faster . . . Why?

The scenes from that manga I read before still fresh in my mind. A Master and Servant. A shy, clumsy girl with her snarky red knight. Their story of adventure, friendship, trust . . . and love.

I've never been in love before. Actually, I've never been close to anyone other than my family and a few friends. I'm a pretty shy and quite person when it comes to social relationships _and _prefer to observe people and their actions for some reason. In the past I was in a traffic accident and nearly killed if someone didn't save me. From that time I started to close my heart, buried all my thoughts inside and only talked when it's necessary. I am at loss on what to do in my life and just do what people order me to do. In a way, I can relate to the heroine of manga I read earlier.

I wonder, could playing Angelic Layer change my dull life, break me from this empty shell and give me a meaning in my life?

And again, I'm thinking of the red knight. A male companion of the heroine, her most trusted partner. The one and only person she could call 'friend' in her harsh world. And in front of me, the red box that contain a male Angel Egg. This is not a coincidence.

. . .

Now Oujirou-san look at me with an expression of worry. "Are you alright, Emi? Maybe we should wait for the newer one after a–"

"It's okay. I'll take this please." I finally decided.

I take the box and give it to Suzuki-san who bring that to the cashier afterwards. The experimental type Angel Egg and male at that... I wonder how it is different to the other?

Wrapped in white plastic bag, Suzuki-san give us the bill. Then her next words shocks me more than I can imagine.

"These all will be 20000 yen. Thank you for purchasing."

"EEEEEEH?!"

That's half of my money I have right now!

***Scene Break***

"If that is all, I suggest you go home to dormitory for today. If you want to join, you're going to have to create your Angel yourself first." In the end, Oujirou-san lent me some money to buy the Angel Egg and its parts. Uuu . . . I didn't know that Angelic Layer is such a luxury!

"I don't know anything about that really. I hope I can do it right."

"No need to worry, even elementary school kids can do it right. Just follow the instructions carefully." He assured.

"Okay, that's a good sign. I'll see you tomorrow, Oujirou-san." I give a small wave to him, which he waves his hand back.

"Yeah, see you too."

As he leave out of my sight, I glance again at the white plastic bag in my left hand. In the end, I decide to buy it despite knowing the suddenly, there's one sentence that rings in my head now.

_'At least, we'll meet again'_

What does it mean?

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**Author's Note: **Once again I been tempted to write crossovers, but instead of Campione! series I tried myself on different genre that people never touch before. English isn't primary language, so all corrections regarding grammars, context and even plot would be greatly appreciated. I also welcome any reviews and opinions about this story as long as it could improve me into a better writer. I'll be updating this once in a while, though don't expect it to be released consistently since I got life and all (also, writer's block).

Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy my story.


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